The Giants and Jets don’t stink. They’re beyond stink.
We’re talking about two professional football franchises that these days couldn’t tell the end zone from the Twilight Zone.
And the fans are indeed stuck in another dimension, where the sights and sounds every week are Big Blue and Gang Green getting thoroughly embarrassed on the gridiron.
Sunday’s embarrassments were emblematic of the woeful state of New York City’s NFL representatives. It was six hours of bad offense, bad defense, bad passes, bad rushes, bad coaching, bad special teams, bad everything.
Competitiveness never made it onto the field, and it was brutal to watch. And we’ve seen this same movie over, and over, and over again.
The situation is so desperate that the intervention of even NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell might not be enough. We need to go right to the top, to the very seat of power of the federal government, the only entity with the resources to “build back better.”
President Biden, if you’re reading, have pity on the New York football fan!
Both teams look utterly hopeless. The Giants last won a Super Bowl a decade ago, but the drought feels five times as long because of poor draft picks and even poorer general management.
General manager Dave Gettleman is leaving at the end of the season, at long last. The Giants must hire someone of real competence, in the style of George Young or Ernie Accorsi, who can restore their lost glory.
As for the Jets, well, they haven’t been to the playoffs in 10 years, and they don’t look like a team that’ll be back in the playoffs anytime soon. Zach Wilson looks like the same kind of franchise savior Sam Darnold was supposed to be.
Both teams’ owners seem incapable of getting it right. All due respect to the Maras, Tischs and Johnsons, their recent track record of front office hires is absolutely abysmal. Both teams’ fans have endured one failed rebuild after another.
Since 2011, the Giants and Jets have each had just one season with 10 or more wins. The Giants have a Super Bowl win and only one playoff appearance afterward to show for it. The Jets had a 10-win season in 2015, and still figured out a way not to make the playoffs; they haven’t been to the postseason since the 2010 campaign.
It’s gotten to the point where the incompetence is so bad that any Giants or Jets victories these days feels like a real achievement. But New York City isn’t interested in handing out participation trophies. Only the finest jewelry — Super Bowl rings, namely — will do.
Is it too much to ask that New York enjoy the level of football success of cities that Boston, Tampa or Kansas City have enjoyed in recent years?
So, President Biden, please help New York football fans “build back better.” Either take over the Giants and Jets and install new, competent leadership there, or give the city a few billion dollars to create a new NFL franchise within the Five Boroughs.
It’s time that the league bring professional football back to New York City.
